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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   28892 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of April 6, 2026

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It's conceivably possible that Colby overreached, or used heated rhetoric that others in the administration would not have signed off on.

I'm skeptical that the administration would have explicitly decided to try to threaten or bully the Vatican, but it would be pretty believable than Colby was told to be as persuasive and forceful as possible, and that in line with the generally bullying, thuggish culture of the Trump White House, that turned into a threat. Someone like Vance could discover that and sincerely feel appalled.

I am dubious of the story, but "Elbridge Colby" is such a beautifully stereotypical WASP name (and looking him up, he's got the pedigree: New England family roots, went to Harvard and Yale, etc.), I nearly hope he was idiot enough to try it 😂 Nativism Redux!

The Know Nothing party had a marching song they chanted in 1855:

The Natives are up, d'ye see...
They have seen a foreign band,
By a servile priesthood led,
Polluting this Eden-land,
And the graves of the patriot dead.
The boy and the bearded man,
Have left the sweets of home,
To resist a ruthless clan--
The knaves of the Church of Rome.
The Natives! The Natives!! The Natives!!

Apparently he also grabbed a 14th century weapon?

behind closed doors at the Pentagon [...] one U.S. official reached for a fourteenth-century weapon and invoked the Avignon Papacy

Seriously, 14th century is awful specific for a weapon's time period, unless it was one of the Swiss Guard's halberds, which, ballsy move there to try to threaten the Pope's envoy with one of his own guardsmen's weapons. Although even then, I think that'd have been 16th century...

Yeah, Swiss guard are early 16th century. Founded in 1506 (so it's their 520th anniversary this year, mark that down on the calendar along with the US semiquincentennial or 250th anniversary), new recruits sworn in every 6th May on the anniversary of the Sack of Rome in 1527, a mere 499 years ago, as memorialised by Sabaton.

If JD can swing an invite for good ol' Elbridge, he could attend the ceremony in May before the July US celebration? 🤣

(As a European, it is kinda cute to watch US guys like Elbridge stomping their feet and throwing their weight about with threats to an entity that survived Diocletian and Napoleon and Hitler. Like, the Swiss Guard last stand is twice as old as your nation's official foundation, my friend, and they're not our oldest part!).

The Avignon papacy was from the 14th century. That's all it means.

Ah. Weird phrasing, but fair enough, I guess.

If it makes you feel better, I also thought the article was claiming he literally threatened the envoy with a crossbow or something.

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